Randolph Scott

George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor, whose Hollywood career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a broad variety of film genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals (albeit in non-singing and non-dancing roles), adventure tales, war films, and a few horror and fantasy films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances, over 60 of them were Westerns. According to editor Edward Boscombe, "...Of all the major stars whose name was associated with the Western, Scott [was] most closely identified with it."

Scott's acting career of over 30 years resulted in the collaboration with many of Hollywood's most acclaimed screen directors, including Henry King, Rouben Mamoulian, Michael Curtiz, John Cromwell, King Vidor, Allan Dwan, Fritz Lang, Sam Peckinpah, Henry Hathaway (eight times), Ray Enright (seven), Edwin L. Marin (seven), Andre de Toth (six), and most notably, Budd Boetticher. Scott also worked with a vast array of cinematic leading ladies, from Shirley Temple and Irene Dunne to Mae West and Marlene Dietrich.

At 6 ft 2 in (188 cm), lanky, muscular, and handsome, Scott displayed his easygoing charm and courtly Southern drawl in his early film appearances that helped offset his limitations, where he was frequently found to be stiff or "lumbering". As he matured, however, his acting routine was viewed as having improved, while his feature film appearances became burnished and leathery, allowing him to portray a "strong, silent" type of stoic hero.

During the early 1950s, Scott was a consistent box-office draw. In the annual Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Polls, his name appeared on the list for four consecutive years, from 1950 to 1953. Scott also appeared in Quigley's Top Ten Money Makers Poll, from 1950 to 1953.